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The Strawberry Mark: A Legacy of Unconditional Love
The surprising gift my parents gave me
“Shame on you for eating strawberries when you were pregnant.”
As my mom cradled me in her arms, she was stung by the stranger’s harsh words. She had remembered this old wives’ tale when the strawberry mark started to appear on my forehead. But my doctor quickly assured her that the mark had nothing to do with anything she ate.
This type of belief could have led to shame and embarrassment, but I never experienced that. I don’t remember having the mark on my forehead. My dad remembers the doctor explaining that it would eventually disappear into my hairline. I always believed it faded over time, and I seem to remember a time when I could tell where it had been, a raised bump that was no longer the color of a strawberry. Eventually, even the bump disappeared.
Strawberry marks, medically known as superficial infantile hemangiomas, are benign clusters of blood vessels that appear in approximately 4% of infants. They typically disappear by the age of 5 and are only treated if there is a risk of complications, usually related to their location.
In the photo above, my hemangioma is prominent on my forehead. I’ve always loved how it made it easy to identify me in baby photos! I am now 57, and no one…
